pic: 522/Robo Wizards - 2008 Robot (3)

[EricH]

Originally Posted by CuriousGeorge

you dont think that it just may be coincidence that some teams may have thought some way to grab the ball?

It could be. But this many teams? I doubt it. If it were one or two plus the original, coincidence could be a good explanation. But this is a lot more than that.

I do know of a coincidence in grabber similarity, but only one or two people have caught it so far (counting me). Same general design, different teams, independent designing. And it's only for two teams, neither of which has really released its design yet (certainly not here).

[Rick-906]

i actually had the idea of using the same wheel-on-top system about five minutes after watching the video. I don't think its fair to say teams have copied, because anyone who has been a part of first for the last few years knows how useful rollers are for gripping round surfaces [poofs, tubes, trackballs].

thats not to say we'll be using one however.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by EricH

It could be. But this many teams? I doubt it. If it were one or two plus the original, coincidence could be a good explanation. But this is a lot more than that.

I don't disagree with you often Eric, but this is one time. Saying that having a wheel to move the ball into your grasp was heavily influenced by 121 is like saying that anyone that has two forks on their lifter was heavily influenced by XXX, or that anyone using an elevator was influenced by seeing team YYY - pick your teams.

Once a team decides to use a lifter technique as opposed to shooter, there are only a few options:
Size and shape of the forks
Laterally moving or stable-width forks
Lift distance
Method of ball release
Whether or not to use an upper arm to hold the ball in

If you decide to use the upper grabber assist, you now have a few more choices, but again only a few:
Hinged clamp-type grabber
Belts
Roller of some kind - wheel or tube

The fact is that this year the size and weight of the ball is what has heavily influenced robot design constraints. I am so far pleasantly surprised to have seen such a wide variety of robots, and surprised again at the number of shooters (my guess was about 5% of teams). I suspect we will continue to see a few unique applications, but that the majority of teams will come up with solutions that are quite similar. The differences we will see will mostly be on how the similar-looking devices are actuated - pneumatics, motor choices, etc.